Connecting Through Code: My Week as a #WeAreRLadies Curator

Njoki Njuki

2025-06-18

👋🏿 Introduction

  • Hi, I’m Njoki 💜
  • Data Analyst at the University of Oxford (HEOR team)
  • Biostatistics background, currently studying MSc in Statistics and Data Science (Hasselt University)
  • Passionate about R, community, and inclusive spaces

💜 R-Ladies Nairobi

  • Reintroducing the R-Ladies Nairobi Chapter
  • Originally started in 2020 🎉
    • Shout out to our founding organisers: Faith Musili, Shel Kariuki & Maggie Wanjiru
  • Welcoming our new co-organisers: Happiness Ndanu & Agnes Ndiragu
  • We’re back and active!
    👉 Keep an eye on our Meetup page for upcoming events!

🎯 Why I Curated #WeAreRLadies

  • I wanted to share my journey and give back to a community that shaped me 💬
  • Highlight diverse voices, experiences, and projects in R
  • Encourage others to feel seen and inspired 💡

🗓️ Preparing for the Week

  • Planned themed posts for each day:
    • My journey into R 📚
    • What I do + side projects 💼
    • Favorite R packages 📦
    • Lessons from the community (rainbowR, ShinyConf) 🌈
  • Used Quarto to draft posts and organised content visually

🧵 Daily Threads & Engagement

  • Shared how I use R in my work: data wrangling, analysis, and creating dashboards
  • Discussed packages like {tidylog}, {quarto}, {golem}, and {ellmer}
  • Asked the community to share their favourite R packages, projects, and workflows
  • Loved seeing how others use R creatively! 💬

✨ Highlights from the Week

  • Conversations about using R for everyday tasks like menu planning or gift selection 🎁
  • Showcased my journey from student to analyst to community builder
  • Talked about Shiny dashboards for LGBTQ+ film data 📽️

🗺️ TidyTuesday: First Treemap

  • Participated in #TidyTuesday Week 18 — NSF Grant Terminations under the Trump Administration
  • Created my first-ever treemap using {treemapify} 📦
  • Visualised grant terminations by NSF directorate and division
  • Opened up a great conversation on improving clarity and accessibility in data viz
  • A fun and practical way to level up my R & ggplot skills!

TidyTuesday Treemap

🌈 Community Spotlights

  • rainbowR: a warm, inclusive space for LGBTQ+ folks in R 🏳️‍🌈
  • Monthly meetups, book clubs (where data meets queer literature), and buddy system
  • I’ve made amazing friends — we talk R and life ☕
  • Data meets identity in powerful ways 💡

📚 Book & Resource Shoutouts

🛠️ {tidylog} – your R co-pilot!

With {tidylog}, you get friendly messages that help track changes at each step of your data pipeline — great for debugging and learning!

🔥 Learning Moments

💬 Conversations That Stood Out

  • Replies from people who also started with R in uni or self-taught
  • Shared side projects: automating reports, building Shiny dashboards, analysing personal data
  • It’s amazing how diverse our use cases are

🎭 Community Beyond Code

  • Not every post had to be tech-heavy — I loved exploring lighter ways to connect!

  • Shared a “3 Things About Me” card 🧠💜

    1️⃣ Loves dashboards & shiny apps

    2️⃣ Romance novels + stats = yes please!

    3️⃣ Used R to choose gifts for my partner 🎁

  • Sparked fun replies and helped humanize the curation experience

  • R is also about joy, creativity, and connection

3 Things Card

💡 Reflections

  • Curating helped me see how far I’ve come 📈
  • Gave me confidence to share my voice
  • Started new conversations + connected with people I wouldn’t have met otherwise
  • Writing threads helped clarify my own thinking ✍️

🫶🏿 Gratitude & Takeaways

  • Thank you, We Are R-Ladies team, for the opportunity
  • We grow by showing up, sharing, and supporting each other
  • If you’re thinking of curating – go for it!
  • The R community is what we make it 💜